Scientific/Technical

My research at the MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit at Cambridge University (from 1998) focused on working memory, attention, intelligence, strategic processing and chunking in the normal population, as well as those with focal brain damage, synaesthesia, Asperger Syndrome and savants. I’ve largely explored these issues using a range of neuroimaging techniques, including fMRI, PET and TMS and have been particularly interested in the function of the prefrontal cortex and parietal cortex.

Another strand of research that particularly interests me is that of the science of consciousness. In some ways this has been the locus of my research, since chunking, I believe, is one of the main functions of conscious thought. In addition, working memory and attention are arguably intrinsically conscious processes. I’ve also published a couple of papers, in collaboration with my former boss, Adrian Owen, in assessing residual consciousness in vegetative state patients.

After Cambridge, I was therefore very lucky currently to be in a position to explore this field, in a very interdisciplinary way, at the relatively new dedicated institute, the Sackler Centre for Consciousness Science, at the University of Sussex, from 2010, where I carried out theoretical and empirical research into consciousness science, and was involved in synaesthesia and cognitive training research.

From 2017 I returned to Cambridge, this time at the Department of Psychology in the University of Cambridge, primarily to research the effects of drowsiness and conscious level (both measured neurally) on cognition, and how this is modulated by age, using MEG, fMRI and structural imaging techniques to examine the neural basis of these effects.

In addition to all of the above, I’ve also collaborated with various scientists on projects relating to memory deficits in Alzheimer’s disease.

Below is a list of my peer-reviewed academic articles and book chapters reflecting all of the above interests, with direct article downloads where available. For citation data, up to date h-index stats and so on you might also wish to visit my Google Scholar profile here.